Raz-Kids Have Read over 1.3 Billon Books

Almost 7-million Raz-Kids in 165 countries have read over 1,392,992,483, and counting, books. The company, Learning A-Z, reports that almost 525 million books have been read on the Raz-Kids site in the last 12 months. The CODiE-award winning books are definitely popular; just ask students who use them. My 7-year-old friend Lebby, whose mom works in my office, delighted in showing me how to use Raz-Kids and all the books she was reading. She loved taking me through the quizzes and showing me how well she understood what she read.

In addition to Raz-Kids, Learning A-Z has other fine programs: Reading A-Z, Science A-Z, Writing A-Z, Vocabulary A-Z, and Reading Tutors.

Super Duper Learning & Handouts

Super Duper Learning, Online Education for Kids, has a HearBuilder Series, which targets auditory memory, following directions, phonological awareness, and sequencing.  Aligned to Common Core Standards, Super Duper’s programs are fun and motivating and are presented in game format to help students with auditory processing, memory, and listening, comprehension, and sequencing skills. Demos of some of the lessons are available for preview on the site.  Coming soon will be Super Duper apps for tablet computers.

The company also provides teachers with free handouts at its Handy Handouts site. Educators are invited to download, but not alter, the handouts provided. You can use the Search area to find the handouts you want, inserting your own keywords or using popular topics such as articulation and phonology, autism, grammar and syntax, hearing and sign language, parent resources, phonics, vocabulary, and oral-motor and apraxia.

Do You & Your Students Suffer from Functional Fixedness?

You, according to Andy Zynga in the Harvard Business Review, are more likely to suffer from Functional Fixedness than your students—especially if they are in the preschool or primary grades. Maybe, that’s because you are so used to how things are that “thinking outside the box” is difficult. Consider the creativity of a preschooler -- young children have minds open to innovation, but as we get older, we tend to see things as we are used to seeing them. One way to get you and your older students out of a creativity slump is to collaborate with others from other disciplines and perhaps even other age groups to “unearth some dramatically different ways to tackle problems....”  Try to step away from your knowledge and experiences as you guide yourself and your students to, as the Apple Slogan went: “Think Different”. According to Zynga, “minds begin to expand” as we step out of the box and into innovation.

Istation—For Individualized Instruction

Istation, which offers individualized instruction for students Pre-K to 12, provides continuous progress monitoring for language arts and reading. All the books used in the program are original and lessons are fun and game-like. Once students are assessed to determine levels, they are given instruction in areas of need such as comprehension, phonics, and fluency. Istation can be integrated into any reading or language arts program and works well with all students, whether they are on grade level, behind in their skills, or need enrichment. The program includes Greek and Latin root words to better help students learn vocabulary and an abundance of cross-curricular elements.

You’ll want to take a look at the lessons that show students how to blend letters. In this section, there are excellent graphics depicting a student’s mouth and tongue forming blending sounds.  Istation, priced at approximately $55 a student and available for site licensing, has many other excellent components, all combined into an engaging format.

Children Create Their Own Disney Stories

Disney Princess: Story Theater! is ready for students to create their own stories. It’s a delightful learning app that ignites imaginations as children enjoy adventures with Cinderella, Belle, and Ariel. They can record their own voice, move the characters, and bring their story onscreen. The app costs $2.99 at the iTunes store and is available for iPhone 3GS and higher, iPod touch, third generation and higher, and iPad. Check the Disney Book site for other children’s apps such as Disney Storytime, Sophia the First: Story Theater, Cinderella Storybook Deluxe, Monsters, Inc., Storybook Deluxe, and Phineas and Ferb Agent P VS. The Puzzle-Inator.

The Flying Kids’ Bookstore App

The Flying Kids’ Bookstore is an app that sends children “soaring” with their reading.  The Bookstore is free; the books students can load on their personal shelves are priced at about $2 to $3 each. Brief descriptions of books that may be purchased appear when the book images are clicked. These interactive books are divided into categories for ages 2+, 3+, 4+, and all books are available in English, Spanish, French, and German. The Bookstore app is a nice way to introduce young children to good books, good reading, and fun literature on bookshelves online. It’s also an excellent way to help children learn to read in foreign languages.

Pandastory Book Shelf

When downloaded from iTunes, Pandastory creates a bookshelf for children on an iPad, thus creating a great place for preschool and primary level students to “check out” books both at home and school.  The shelf app is free and comes preloaded with a free book that you and your students can read, enjoy the animations, and create your own versions of the story. Teachers and parents can publish and share books that are personalized for individual children or classes. Other books (priced approximately $1-$3) are available for the shelf.  An iPhone version will be available soon, and new books for the shelf are available monthly.  So, let your students take off with stories of monsters everywhere, a wild west rabbit and hare, a buck-tooth dinosaur, a kooky pirate, and more.

Fun Finding Pi and More

The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics’ Illuminations site offers excellent resources for teaching math.  Included are over 100 activities and over 600 lessons you can use with students at all levels. One of the activities features how Archimedes calculated Pi. Even though you may have missed Pi Day on March 14^th, you can challenge your students to learn just how this Greek mathematician used circles and squares to find the answer. There are lots more like this at Illuminations.

What Does Tech Take from Us?

Why might technology be an obstacle in classrooms? Matthew Lynch, in the Education Week piece, “Tracing Technology’s Unintended K-12 Effects”, worries about the changes technology is having in our schools. Although, technology provides increased access to knowledge and communication, according to Lynch, it is “both a blessing and a curse.” Lynch calls us a “screen culture” in which children coming to school are used to the instant gratification that television, video games, smart phones, computers, and the Internet offer.  Teachers, especially those in the lower grades, struggle to catch and keep student attention. Because students are expecting what they want at the press of a button, they have difficulty when they are faced with problems.

Lynch wonders if students who learn to read with electronic books will have the same “reverence” for reading as many of us gained in the past. Is the feeling of opening a good book and settling down to read the same? Many of us would argue that it is, but Lynch isn’t so sure.  He also challenges us with other questions, like this one: “Which teaching methods deserve to be clung to and which ones are meant for the curb?”

iPads in Kindergarten

What are some of the best ways to use digital devices with young students? Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano in the Technology & Learning Advisor Blog gives ideas about how students can learn to “do what they could not conceive or accomplish without them [iPads] before.” For kindergarten classrooms, Tolisano offers a sample learning activity in which the apps Doodle Buddy, Skitch, iMovie, and ExplainEverything are used to help students develop cross curricular skills, use critical and creative thinking skills, and gain workflow fluency. Note: If you’d like to learn more about the importance of workflow fluency in the early grades, take a look at Kristi Meeuwse’s post, Workflow and iPads.